Flemish Altruism + Inindependence

A Minor Forest's two classic albums, Flemish Altruism (1996) and Inindependence (1998) have been re-issued as a 4xLP set. The records, which have been out of print for nearly a decade, are packaged together in a special set with each album in its own gatefold jacket with free download card. Flemish Altruism is presented with brand new artwork featuring many newly unearthed archival photos and was remastered from the original tapes.

The A Minor Forest story begins in the late 80’s in San Diego, where Andee (the drummer) and Erik (the guitar player) grew up. Andee was studying art at U.C.S.D., working at the college radio station and playing in a metal band. The bass player in said band was still in high school with Erik, who was pretty much Goth at the time. The two met through this mutual friend and began to hang out.

In 1990 Andee moved away, eventually relocating in San Francisco. Erik followed in 1992, moving to the Bay Area to study music at U.C. Berkeley. The two began to play music together that spring. After months of searching for an acceptable bass player, John entered the picture in January of 1993. He had attended music school at Berkeley as well, playing clarinet in the symphony. One week after their first rehearsal, the three played their first show.

In the spring of 1994, Dominique Davison, another music student at Berkeley, began playing cello with the group, helping with recordings and occasional live performances. Through Dominique’s band, Spitboy, AMF hooked up with Steve Albini in August of 1995. The band went on to record a number of sessions with both Steve and Bob Weston that would make up Flemish Altruism, their debut record for Thrill Jockey. Dominique left the band shortly before the record came out, but appears on some of that material as well as on various vinyl on releases that came out prior to Flemish. After much touring the band recorded their second record for Thrill Jockey, Inindependence with Brian Paulson in Winter of 1998 in Chicago. The band continued to tour and release singles and make compilation appearances for most of 1998, before deciding to take a hiatus in Fall of 1998. A collection of much of this out of print material and a couple new tracks made it onto the Were They in Some Sort of Fight? CD on My Pal God Records in 1999.

During A Minor Forest’s hiatus, Andee went on to play in many bands including Lumen and the currently active Imperils. He became co-owner of Aquarius Records, one of the best record stores in the US. He also started his own record label, Tumult.

Erik went on to work in public radio and pursue chamber music with Dominique in their group Threnody Ensemble. This led him to attend graduate school in music at U.C. San Diego. From there, he went on to play with the band Pinback for six years.

John went on to play in the band Creepy Crawly Claw. He also created the Larry Bus, an Oakland public transit bus that he converted into a vegetable-oil powered mobile concert venue. He released a solo album in 2013.